This is a handmade ring of 15-karat yellow/rose gold, with decorative cast gold setting. The ring is set with .08 points of a carat on the top of the center gemstone and another one the same size below the gemstone. The center gemstone is a 1/2 carat pink tourmaline.
Pink Tourmaline has an interesting History:
Pink Tourmaline has another feature that attracted the attention of scientists since ancient times. The philosopher Theophrastus wrote 23 centuries ago that "lyngourion", the mineral tourmaline, had the property of attracting straws and bits of wood. This effect, called pyroelectricity, occurs when the crystal is heated, causing it to yield a positive charge at one end of the crystal and a negative charge at the other and attract lightweight substances. This is why the Dutch called tourmaline “asshentrekers” or ash drawers during the eighteenth century. An electrical charge can also be induced in some tourmaline crystals simply by applying pressure to the crystal in the direction of the vertical crystal axis. This effect is known as piezoelectricity, and found many uses in pressure measuring equipment and other scientific applications: Tourmaline was used in the production of pressure sensitive gauges for submarine instrumentation as well as other war equipment. The pressure gauges that measured the power of the first atomic bomb blasts were made with slices of this gem.
Tourmaline is the alternate birthstone for October, along with the opal. Dutch traders off the West Coast of Italy first discovered the stone in the late 1600's or early 1700's. The name tourmaline comes from the Sinhalese term “turmali,” which was the name given to all colored crystals on the island of Sri Lanka at that time. This all-inclusive name indicates the inability of ancient gem dealers to differentiate tourmaline from other stones. In fact, at one time in history, pink and red tourmaline was thought to be rubies. Pink tourmaline tends to be pinker in color than ruby. However, their similarities in appearance are so strong that the stones in the Russian crown jewels believed to be rubies for centuries, are now thought to be Tourmalines.
The ring is a size 4 but could be re-sized larger or smaller. The current insured value as of June 2016 is $1,100.00